


Let Me Break On You Like A Wave

by FeliciaSueLynn



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Beach, Beaches, First Meetings, I needed a fun on the beach fic okay, M/M, Meet-Cute, Summer, is it obvious that I love meet cutes and AUs yet???, summer fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-11 04:53:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11707224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeliciaSueLynn/pseuds/FeliciaSueLynn
Summary: Bitty gets roped into a beach volleyball tournament. At least there's a cute boy on one of the other teams to keep him occupied between games.





	Let Me Break On You Like A Wave

**Author's Note:**

> This is supremely unedited and I'm sorry. Title taken from Vacations by Superfruit

Bitty was content to lay on his beach towel soaking up the sun for the rest of the day. He really wanted to just relax and let his freckles gradually appear with his skin turning a warm honey underneath and between them. What’s the point of the beach if it’s not to lay out and be lazy?

Try telling that to Ransom and Holster.

“Come on, Bits. There’s a volleyball tournament. We’re gonna kick ass. Pleaassseee,” Holster whines. Bitty rolls his eyes.

“Ya’ll don’t really need me. You have Farmer, Chowder, Dex and Nursey. That’s 6 people.”

“Dex is already hella burned,” Ransom says, lips protruding in an exaggerated pout, “He refuses to leave the shade of the pavilion by the parking lot.”

Really, Bitty should have been prepared for some kind of competition while on the beach with his friends. Ransom and Holster never could say no. They’re too competitive. Bitty gives a long suffering sigh but he sits up, ruffles stray sand from his hair, and then holds his hands out.

Ransom and Holster give him twin smiles. They spread across their faces in the same way at the same time. It’s startling really. They each grab a hand and haul Bitty up. They pull a little too hard and almost send him face first into the sand behind them. Thankfully, Holster catches him with an arm in front of his chest.

“Sw’awesome,” Ransom says and bumps his fist against Holster’s. He casually throws an arm around Bitty’s shoulders and walks him towards where everyone else is gathered, heads together.

Farmer is talking strategy and who’s going to take what position at the start. Chowder is nodding enthusiastically. Bitty smiles. At least it should be fun and with Farmer on their team they actually have a pretty good shot at winning. Bitty listens attentively while Farmer discusses their plan of attack.

“What should our name be,” Ransom interrupts Farmer.

“How about SMH? We were all on the hockey team,” Nursey offers.

Farmer coughs, “Not all of us.”

“Right, sorry.”

“How about Shark Bites,” Chowders exclaims.

“Dude, not everything has to be about the Sharks,” Holster chirps.

“But we’re at the beach. Sharks are a beach thing,” Chowder says.

They bicker for a while but no one comes up with anything better so they end up calling themselves Shark Bites.

Farmer goes back to talking about their strategy one more time and then the conversations delve into other things while they wait for the tournaments to begin. There’s 6 teams who signed up. Bitty looks around at the various groups gathered around the two volleyball nets set up.

There are a lot of bro-y types in one group. Another is composed of all athletic girls who clearly do this a lot. They even have jersey’s over their bathing suits. It’s a little intense. The other two are a little mixed like his group. Clearly just groups of friends who want to have a little competitive fun.

The last team looks intense though. There’s 7 people standing in a circle so clearly one of them is sitting out. But one guy is talking exuberantly with hands flailing around. He’s got long brown hair and a porn mustache and the short girl next to him is trying hard not to smile. He has money on the short girl not playing.

But the tall guy next to him is frowning and glaring at the sand. He’s cute, Bitty thinks, but he bets the guy is a lot cuter when he smiles. Bitty can’t actually see the rest of the people in the group since they’re facing away from him.

“Bits, you ready,” Nursey says nudging his arm. Bitty tears his gaze away from observing the other groups and nods.

“Yea, let’s do it.”

They end up facing the bro-y team first. It sounds like at least 3 of the guys are named Chad and they all played Lacrosse together in college. They beat them pretty easily. Holster talks shit the whole game with an absolutely straight face. The angrier the other team gets the worse they play. It’s a strategy if Bitty’s ever seen one.

They have to wait for the third set to play their game since there’s only two nets. He sits down in the sand to watch. It’s the intense team versus the all girl team. It’s a crazy game. He was right about who was sitting out. Instead, the girl is sitting on the sidelines next to him sipping on a drink large sunglasses covering most of her face.

“Intense game, huh,” she says.

“Yea, I figured the girl team would be the one to beat. But it at this rate, maybe not.”

She laughs, “Jack’s too competitive to go out in the first round.”

Bitty doesn’t know which one is Jack but he laughs along. They get quiet again as they watch the game. It’s a nice, comfortable silence.

“I’m Lardo,” she says after a while and holds out her hand team. Bitty shakes it.

“Call me Bitty.”

“Hockey name,” She asks raising her eyebrow. Bitty laughs.

“Yea, how’d you know?”

“I used to be a hockey team manager in college. Most of the guys on that volleyball team were actually on the hockey team.”

“Funny how that works out? I played hockey with almost everyone on my team today.”

They both laugh a little bit and it falls back to comfortable silence until she’s jumping up and yelling because her team won. Bitty says congrats to her and then wanders off to find the rest of his team. They’re standing in front of the people who organized the tournament. Apparently everyone is being gathered. Once all the remaining teams are there, the guy starts talking.

“There’s an odd number of teams for the second round. So two of the teams will play a game and the winner goes to the final round and the loser faces the other team for a second chance at the final round. Sound good?”

Everyone nods.

“Okay, first up, the Shark Bites vs How I Set Your Mother. Whoever wins that will face the MF Beauts,” the guy says clearly trying not to laugh.

“How come we didn’t think of How I Set Your Mother,” Holster whines. Bitty shakes his head but listens to Farmer talk more strategy and then they’re playing.

This game is harder than the last and Holster’s chirping does nothing but distract them this time so he eventually stops. The game is intense and quiet except grunts, the sound of the ball hitting skin, and occasional swears. They end up winning but just barely.

Bitty doesn’t stay to watch the game. He jumps in the water to cool down. He’s pretty sure he’s never sweat this much in his life even when he was playing in the NCAA. Bitty sinks under the water and stays there for a few seconds just enjoying being surrounded by it with all the noise from the beach muffled.

He resurfaces and pushes the hair off his face, smiling when he sees Ransom tackle Holster into a wave. He looks up at the game. The guy who was frowning and glaring is staring at him mouth slightly parted.

It happens almost in slow motion. Bitty sees the ball come flying at the guy. Bitty tries to call out to warn him but the words are ripped from his throat by the wind and then the guy is hit directly in the face with a volleyball.

He stumbles and the guy with the long hair says some things and then starts laughing. The guy shakes his head and then the game is back on like the staring never happened. Bitty is absolutely bewildered. He looks over at his friends but Ransom and Holster are staring at him with matching grins that spell trouble for Bitty.

He tries to run but they catch him and then he’s being grabbed and tossed a solid 3 feet across the water. Bitty has just enough time to plug his nose and try to stop giggling so he can hold his breath when he hits the water. He comes up sputtering and wiping water from his face.

“Ya’lls pie privilege is revoked,” Bitty says trying to glare but failing spectacularly. He can’t help it he breaks into laughter.

“Bits, you wouldn’t dare,” Ransom says aghast.

“You just watch me!”

They splash around a bit more in the water. Bitty feels like he’s being watched but every time he looks up to scan the beach he doesn’t see anyone watching. They eventually get out when it looks like the game is close to the end.

Bitty drops onto his towel and watches the end of the game and dry off. Lardo is on the other side so he’s alone this time. Holster comes over, hands him a water bottle and then wanders off again. Bitty downs the water bottle in one go.

“Zimmermann,” Lardo yells, “head in the game. Heart eyes later.”

Bitty laughs and looks up just in time to catch the intense guy looking away. Bitty smirks and looks at Lardo. She smirks back and shrugs.

The MF Beauts end up winning. They take a small break and Bitty watches as the intense guy, Zimmermann?, gathers his team and starts talking about strategy. Lardo seems to be very pointedly staying away from Zimmermann.

Bitty gets called over by Farmer to talk more strategy. She seems a little more fierce about it this time around. She’s just as competitive as the rest of them and Bitty’s pretty sure she views the MF Beauts as some real competition.

All too soon the game starts. Holster doesn’t even try to chirp the other team though the guy with the long hair comes up with a bunch. Bitty seems to mirror the Zimmermann guy. Bitty starts in the back right corner serving and Zimmermann ends up in the back left corner.

When it’s time for everyone to rotate, the two end up in front of each other. Zimmermann stares intensely, lips in a thin line, and Bitty is pretty sure Lardo made up the hearts eyes thing to chirp him. Zimmermann seems to be looking anywhere but at Bitty.

“Bits,” Holster yells, “Set it up.”

Bitty nods and sets the ball so Holster can jump up and perfectly spike it over the net. Zimmermann levels a glare at Bitty when the ref calls the point. Bitty winks and blows a kiss and then they’re rotating positions again. They’re both middle front and Zimmermann looks slightly bewildered.

The game continues like that, Bitty throwing flirtatious looks at Zimmermann whenever he catches his eye because it seems to throw off his game just a little bit. Plus it couldn’t hurt anything.

It’s tied up but the game is almost over and Bitty cannot wait to jump back in the water. He’s pretty sure he’s covered in sweat and sand and had honestly never felt more gross. He can’t even be mad when Zimmermann ends up scoring the winning point for his team.

They celly the way hockey teams usually do. Bitty rolls his eyes and runs over hot sand to dive pretty much head first into a wave. He surfaces and sees Chowder pick up Farmer and bring her to the water. She’s laughing but trying to frown. Bitty rolls his eyes and swims further out so his toes just barely touch the sand and then floats on his back with his eyes closed.

He only gets a small warning before he’s being pushed under by his chest. When he surfaces angry and coughing up water, he has to level a glare at Nursey who’s laughing so hard he can’t breath.

“Haha, Mr Nurse.”

“Sorry, Bitty. I thought you heard me coming,” he says still wheezing, “Please don’t take my pie away. Oh look. Here comes the other team.”

Nursey points to where the long haired guy is dragging Zimmermann through the water with Lardo perched on his shoulders still wearing sunglasses. Zimmermann seems to be a little softer around the edges now that they’re not playing a game. He’s got a soft smile even as he reluctantly lets the guy pull him around. Bitty was right, he’s much cuter with a smile.

Bitty splashes at Nursey who swims away to rough house with Ransom and Holster. Bitty debates going back to his comfortable back floating. Being in the water is super refreshing but it looks like the other team is heading directly for him so he waits it out and just treads water instead.

“That was a beautiful fucking spike set up, bro,” the long haired guy says. “Name’s Shitty. Heard you met Lardo,” he pats her leg, “This gorgeous motherfucker is Jack.”

“Nice to meet, ya’ll. I’m Eric but ya’ll can call me Bitty.”

Shitty laughs, “That fits man.”

“Steed,” Lardo says pulling her glasses down and winks at Bitty over the top of them before pushing them back up her face, “I wish to be back on land.”

“Then back to land we go. Jacky boy, keep Bitty company.”

Jack looks over at Shitty with what Bitty would call a pleading look but Shitty just smiles and then turns back the way they came. Bitty rolls his eyes but doesn’t say anything. Jack looks over at him, eyes wide and lips in a thin line.

“So, uh, good game,” Bitty says trying to fill the silence. Jack nods and Bitty wants to be anywhere else. Awkward conversations are the worst and this guy clearly doesn’t want his company. But Bitty was raised a gentleman so he’ll stay here and valiantly try to keep Jack company.

“So I hear you played hockey with the people on your team, was that in college or?”

“Oh, uh. Yea. At Harvard.”

Bitty nods, “Awesome. What years? Maybe we played each other? My friends and I went to Samwell and were on the team there.”

“Aren’t you a little short for Hockey,” Jack asks with a small half smile. Bitty rolls his eyes but he’s glad Jack seems to be warming up.

“I’ll have you know I’m average sized, Mr Zimmermann.”

The small smile on Jack’s face widens and the only thing Bitty can think for a few seconds is wow and then Jack is standing at his full height right next to Bitty.

“I don’t know. Looks like you can barely touch the ground here. Need a hand? Or maybe a foot,” he chirps.

Bitty splashes Jack and Jack splashes back and suddenly it’s an all out war. They’re both sending giant waves back and forth. Bitty has to call it off pretty quickly though. He’s closer to the water and the salt is starting to sting his eyes.

“That was fun,” Bitty says as he lazily back strokes to shore. Jack is walking beside him and he nods.

“Want to go for a walk,” Jack asks quietly pointing down the beach. It looks less crowded than the small stretch they’re on right now.

They walk and Bitty has to work to get Jack to open up but it’s fun. Bitty is honestly surprised by how much they have in common. They only turn around when Jack realizes how low the sun is in the sky. By the time they’re getting back to the beach they started at the sun is setting over the water. Bitty bites his lip.

“Do you want to get coffee...with me...tomorrow,” Bitty asks.

Jack looks surprised but his face softens into a smile.

“I’d love that.”


End file.
